Budget bill set to pass Senate next week

OTTAWA — The government's budget implementation bill received little — if any — opposition from witnesses who testified before various Senate committees over the past month, but senators reviewing the sweeping bill said Tuesday that there are aspects of the legislation that need changes.

Those technical issues won't be enough to hold up passage of the bill before the end of the month.

Bill C-38 will sail through the Senate next week as the opposition Liberals said Tuesday they weren't planning to delay passage of the omnibus legislation any longer.

"We have not delayed any of these bills, and we won't," said Senator James Cowan, the Liberal leader in the Senate. "We're not filibustering, we're not delaying anything."

The Senate will sit next week, even as the House of Commons rises for its summer break by week's end. Senators have conducted a month-long examination of the 425-page omnibus legislation and reported the results Tuesday.

Meanwhile, another type of examination received little uptake from MPs: a quiz offered by Green Party Leader Elizabeth May on the contents of the bill had just one taker — independent MP Bruce Hyer, who earned a perfect score — but not one Tory MP showed up to take the 15-minute multiple-choice, open-book quiz.

Any MP who earned a passing grade — three out of five — would get a tree planted in the location of their choice.

"If nobody comes that will mean Stephen Harper told them they're not allowed to come take this quiz," May said Tuesday in an empty room in Parliament's Centre Block, sitting next to a stack of unopened quizzes, a copy of the bill and some untouched pitchers of water.

"If you're given your talking points and you're content to live with yourself to rely on talking points instead of reading the legislation yourself, then that be on your head."

Bill C-38 would raise the eligibility age for old age security, reform the employment insurance system, overhaul environmental protection and fisheries laws, and expedite natural resource development approvals.

The bill also creates a new bilateral agreement with the United States for cross-border maritime enforcement, which a Senate committee heard Tuesday won't infringe on the sovereignty of either nation. C-38 also makes changes to the skilled workers program for new immigrants, including how much they are paid.

Changes to banking rules and the Fisheries Act also are contained in the legislation.

"There's a lot of stuff there that has nothing to do with the budget," Cowan said.

The government has defended its legislation repeatedly, saying the measures in the 400-page-plus bill are what the country needs to stay afloat in a tough global economy.

The bill's contents were the subject of a number of technical questions from senators on Tuesday, as a parade of Senate committee heads testified before their colleagues about the results of a month-long pre-study of the bill.

The technical issues senators identified couldn't be changed on Tuesday because the Senate finance committee doesn't yet have the bill before it. Rather, senators said Tuesday that some wording in C-38 should be flagged to be clarified by affected departments — such as wording related to changes to the Fisheries Act related to aboriginal fishing rights and protected species.

"There's an issue (with wording)," Conservative Senator David Angus told the finance committee. "It's important that this be clarified."

Changes to the Fisheries Act have drawn scorn from four former fisheries ministers, but Liberal Senator Grant Mitchell told the finance committee that their concerns were aired during hearings on C-38 at the Senate's natural resources committee.

But Angus and the parade of senators who testified before the Senate's finance committee used the common refrain: Even opponents to C-38 felt the changes were needed to systems — such as the skilled workers program and maritime law enforcement — that aren't working to everyone's satisfaction.

"By and large, we were ready for arduous hearings and opposition. Even those opposed approved (of) the way forward," Angus said.

The Senate took the past month to conduct a pre-study on the bill, preparing itself for the 425-page omnibus legislation once it passed the Commons. The pre-study was a condition set by the Liberals for allowing the government to push the bill through the Senate without procedural tactics to delay it from becoming law.

Bill C-38 passed the Commons Monday night by a vote of 157-135 and received first reading in the Senate shortly after the vote. Second reading in the Senate is Wednesday.

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Vancouver Flyers

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